My goal is to help you manage the balance between work and your family and personal lives. I'll focus on creative solutions to conflicting demands, new strategies for helping people juggle responsibilities, and new trends and developments.

Tuesday, March 06, 2007

How to get a family-friendly position

In the years that I have been writing about work/life balance, I have come across numerous really top-notch females that wanted to return to their career after having a baby, but did NOT want the hours associated with full-time work. I am one of these women. After my first child, I asked for a reduced schedule. But I professed every intention of coming back full time in the near future. After giving birth two more times, I already had proved I could be a valuable member of the paper's business staff on a part time schedule. Soon, my editors stopped asking me when I was planning to return full time.So, when I read Suzanne Dupree Howe's blog post on counsel to counsel, it made me think what it may take to get a family-friendly position. Suzanne's post says these positions at law firms usually are found through back door methods. Suzanne, a legal recruiter, says she has placed and gotten offers for women with reduced work schedules. But the interview process is tricky."In order to successfully negotiate, these women had to interview as if they wanted a full-time position, then sit back and wait for an offer. Then once the offer was in hand, they negotiated their hours. Simply put, they had to make the firms believe they were indispensable before they showed all their cards," Suzanne says.Do you believe the back door method works best when seeking a part-time job?

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About this blog

Cindy Krischer Goodman writes The Balancing Act column for The Miami Herald. She has been a reporter and business columnist since 1994. The mother of three children, she brings her personal experiences to her beat. Cindy grew up in Miami and has a degree in journalism from University of Florida. Off the job, she exercises, reads, volunteers in schools, and cares for her children. Email her at cgoodman@miamiherald.com